Private arrangements for the security of people and property predate the organised policing function of the state.¹ A few centuries ago, most societies had largely informal and private mechanisms to resolve what were, in essence, criminal disputes. There were "... no public prosecutors, and the police were public in name only, deriving most of their income from bounties and shares of revenues from fines."² In Britain and in other parts of the world, the responsibility for law enforcement, "... how it was used, against whom and when it was enforced were not matters for state initiative, but for the aggrieved private citizen."³

With the advent of industrialisation and urbanisation the local, personal, and voluntary basis of law enforcement disappeared. It was replaced by a state-owned, organised, and disciplined police force, with responsibilities for public safety and the prevention of crime within the entire territory of the state. By the late 19th century, the state had taken over virtually all aspects of the modern criminal justice system.

Since the 1960s, the trend towards absolute state control of the criminal justice sphere has undergone a reversal in a number of developed capitalist states. Even for wealthier states, the maintenance and expansion of all aspects of a criminal justice system became too costly. Moreover, the private sector developed the expertise and capacity to provide specialised services more cost-effectively than the state.

One of the most serious problems in South Africa is that the demand for an effective criminal justice system is increasing at a rate greater than the ability of the state to provide the services required.

The amount of money spent on the three core components of the criminal justice system (justice, prisons and the police) has increased considerably in real terms over the last ten years. Spending increased from R4,3 billion in 1990/1991 to R23,5 billion in the 1999/2000 budget year — an increase of 450 per cent.⁴ Over a similar period (1990-1999), the consumer price index increased by 159 per cent.⁵ The proportion of the national budget devoted to these three sectors of the criminal justice system has more than doubled over the last twelve years, from 4,8 per cent in 1987/88 to 10,8 per cent in 1999/2000 (figure 1).

As state spending on the criminal justice system has increased, so has the level of serious crime. Between 1994 and 1998, the number of reported serious crimes increased by eight per cent. Over the same period, the incidence of rape increased by sixteen per cent, residential burglary by seventeen per cent, and robbery by 28 per cent.⁶ As crime (especially violent crime) increased, so people’s general feeling of safety decreased. According to Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) surveys, 73 per cent of South Africans felt safe in 1994, and sixteen per cent felt unsafe. At the end of 1998, some 45 per cent felt safe and 49 per cent unsafe (figure 2).⁷

As perceptions of levels of crime worsen — and of the state’s ability to protect its citizens — people with the necessary means use private forms of security to protect themselves and their possessions. It is estimated that the turnover of the private security industry increased from R141 million in 1978,⁸ to R5,9 billion in 1997,⁹ and to R8,8 billion in 1998.¹⁰ This does not include the vehicle security industry, or in-house security, worth in the region of R2 billion and R1 billion, respectively. The combined worth of the security industry in South Africa is therefore estimated at more than R11 billion.¹¹

According to the Security Officers’ Board, there are 159 000 active security officers in the South African guarding industry, employed by some 4 600 security businesses.¹² In addition, there are an estimated 200 000 in-house security officers.¹³ These are security personnel who exclusively guard the premises or property of their employer. In total, the broad private security industry employs in the region of 470 000 people.

In South Africa, the ratio of private security personnel (across all categories) to uniformed police officers is approximately 4,4:1.¹⁴ While this ratio is high, private security personnel outnumber police officers in a number of other countries. In the United States, the ratio is 3:1. In the United Kingdom and Australia, it is about 2:1.¹⁵

It is not only in terms of staffing that the security industry is larger than the public police. The industry as a whole has access to 80 000 vehicles.¹⁶ By comparison, the vehicle fleet of the South African Police Service (SAPS) consists of 37 000 vehicles.¹⁷

The growth of the private security industry in South Africa has been most marked in the field of policing and crime control, for a number of reasons:

Private policing is more "flexible and efficient than public enforcement because it can be more readily adjusted to changing levels of consumer demand."¹⁸ The ability of private security agencies to hire and dismiss personnel, or to employ people for temporary or part-time assignments on demand, is impossible in public police forces that have to operate under strict public service regulations.



The public questions the ability of the police to protect them from crime. For example, a national survey conducted at the end of 1998 found that 67 per cent of the respondents either had ‘some’ or ‘not much’ confidence in the SAPS. Only 33 per cent had ‘a lot’ of confidence in the police.¹⁹



Because of the high crime rate and the use of police officers in administrative functions, the visible presence of the police is stretched so thin that it fails to deter crime significantly. The role of the police shifts from preventing crime, to reacting to crime after it has occurred and been reported. The role of private policing is different. Its main purpose is to reduce the risk of crime through preventive action. Private policing is victim-oriented, with the security needs of the potential victim taking precedence.



South Africa’s urban areas contain a sophisticated industrial, commercial and residential market for security. The needs of this diverse market cannot be met by the SAPS within the scope of its limited human and financial resources. The private security industry fulfils security needs that the police cannot or will not provide.



In the last few decades, there has been a world-wide increase in ‘mass private property’: privately owned property to which the public has a right of access and use.²⁰ This includes shopping centres, university campuses, office complexes, industrial parks, airports, train stations and private recreational areas. Such mass private property has security needs that the public police often cannot provide.

Examples abound of the private security industry engaging in activities that used to be the sole domain of the police:

A venture started in mid-1996 in Senderwood (Johannesburg) is indicative of how security firms are moving into areas formerly reserved to the public police: sending their staff out on the beat to patrol streets and public areas. Working at the behest of the communities of two different streets in Senderwood, a private security firm set up a street surveillance team. The team consists of a manned vehicle unit combined with a foot patrol that provide round-the-clock surveillance to deter criminals from operating in the area.²¹



In Observatory (Cape Town), residents have formed a non-profit company, Obswatch. The company controls the operation and funding of a security control room for the suburb. The funding is derived from almost 1 000 residences and businesses that pay R50 and R100 a month, respectively. The company employs seventeen guards who patrol the area. These guards are police reservists who carry handcuffs and concealed firearms. While the guards do not have full powers of arrest, they can make citizens’ arrests.²² Obswatch started its operations in September 1997. Crime in Observatory had decreased by sixty per cent in February 1998, compared to February 1997. Housebreaking had dropped by 88 per cent, robbery by 67 per cent, theft by 57 per cent, and burglaries from businesses by 58 per cent.²³



In Centurion (near Pretoria), residents and businesspersons, with the assistance of the local council, formed a Section 21 company, the Centurion Community Protection Company, to combat crime through visible policing. The activities of the company are co-ordinated with those of the local community police forum, the city council of Centurion, and the police station commanders in the area. Between November 1996 and July 1998, security personnel employed by the company made 2 738 arrests, and the theft and hijacking of motor vehicles declined.²⁴

EXPANDING THE ROLE OF PRIVATE SECURITY

The South African Police Service

No formal national co-operation agreement exists between the SAPS and the private security industry. However, the SAPS does have observer status on the board of the South African Security Federation.²⁵

Moreover, an internal SAPS discussion document concludes that "... security companies play a significant and important role in the provision of crime intelligence and information."²⁶ The document predicts that SAPS resources will increasingly be channelled into combating priority crimes, such as drug trafficking, carjacking, violent crimes committed with illegal firearms, and the activities of criminal organisations. This will decrease the SAPS’s resources for visible policing and crime prevention functions in residential areas. "Accordingly it would be of use to everyone (private security industry, municipal authorities, businesses, the public and the police) to in some form or another make use of the resources offered by the private security industry in the fight against crime", the report stated.²⁷

Numerous aspects of the work done by the SAPS are suited for greater private sector participation. The SAPS could call for tenders for the provision of a variety of its current services, and set standards for the provision of these services with which private contractors would have to comply.

Forensic investigation: The lifting and comparing of fingerprints, the photographing of crime scenes, and the conducting of chemical analyses and ballistic tests are specialised fields of police work that could be outsourced to companies that have the staff, equipment and expertise to undertake forensic investigations.²⁸

For example, the analysis of alcohol levels from blood samples of people suspected of driving while under the influence of alcohol, is currently only performed at three places in the country: the Department of Health’s forensic chemical laboratories in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Pretoria. Insufficient staff and outdated laboratory equipment hamper the work of these laboratories. It takes six to ten weeks for an analysis report to be finalised for use as evidence in a trial. Much of this work could be outsourced.

Criminal investigation: In many parts of the world, private security agencies engage in specialised investigative activity. According to Johnston, the author of The rebirth of private policing, this is partly because of the "... inability of police organizations (and the law itself) to keep up with the sophisticated techniques of those engaged in large-scale fraud."²⁹

The investigation of commercial crime by private investigators and forensic accountants has taken place for some time in South Africa. Many private forensic accounting firms have become "... privatised commercial branches of the police comprised largely of ex-SAPS detectives."³⁰

A new development is the investigation of violent crimes, such as murder and rape, by private security firms staffed by law graduates and experienced former SAPS detectives. A number of firms have the staff and technical expertise to collect and analyse forensic material such as fingerprints, and blood and hair samples, and collate all the evidence necessary for a successful criminal prosecution.³¹

The SAPS could expand what is already occurring on an ad hoc basis. For crimes where specialised detection skills are required — such as in the fields of commercial and environmental crime — the police could make greater use of external expertise on a regular basis.

Administrative functions: Some 25 000 police officers are deployed in an administrative capacity. There is a dual benefit in outsourcing administrative work to the private sector. Firstly, police officers doing such work become available to fight crime and apprehend criminals. Secondly, the state could employ people who, in contrast to police officers, are actually trained to do administrative work.

Court orderly duties: Each court room in the country has at least one or two court orderlies, the majority of whom are police officers. Outsourcing this function would leave police members free to pursue primary policing tasks.

Transporting prisoners: Use is made of SAPS personnel to transport prisoners between police stations, courts, and prisons throughout the country. This could also be successfully contracted out to private security firms.

Guards for premises and persons: A total of 2 437 police officers are deployed to guard state-owned premises. A further 1 144 police officers are deployed to guard individuals.

Serving summonses: Police officers are often used to serve summonses on crime suspects or state witnesses.

Security at private functions: At the International Amateur Athletic Federation’s eighth world cup athletics event at the Johannesburg stadium in September 1998, for example, some 1 000 police officers were deployed for the duration of the three-day event, primarily to oversee the safety of the athletes and officials^.32

Training: Fifteen per cent of police officer training is done externally.³³ The rest is done by the SAPS itself. While 46 000 members of the SAPS do not have driver’s licences, the SAPS’s driving school in Benoni and other police training centres only provided driver training to 1 740 police officers between 1995 and 1997.³⁴

Examples of other kinds of policing services that could be outsourced, are to be found in the United States. Because of the politically decentralised nature of the US, many local councils use private companies to conduct policing operations.

In the 1960s, the state of Florida contracted a private firm to supplement its police force’s investigative services. The state commissioned Wackenhut Incorporated to assist the police force in its war against organised crime. The US $500 000 contract lasted one year, and led to more than eighty criminal prosecutions. Many of those arrested were local politicians and government employees.³⁵



In the 1970s, Multi-State Incorporated provided skilled narcotics agents to public police forces on contract. During its first few months of operation, Multi-State was responsible for 150 arrests, and the seizure of illegal drugs with a street value of US $200 000.³⁶ Many small-town police forces without the financial resources to retain a full-time pool of specialised narcotics detectives, with comparable skills and experience, made use of these services.



San Francisco has a number of private police beats which are owned by ‘private patrol specialists’. All of these specialists go through a police training course, and have the right to carry a firearm and make arrests. They are paid exclusively by the businesses, homeowners and landlords on their ‘beat’ or patrol area. Each patrolperson purchases the right to a patrol area. He or she then negotiates contracts with property owners, who purchase his or her services. The level of attention required by a customer determines the fee. Patrolpersons are legally members of the San Francisco Police Department (like reservists), and are required to respond to police calls in their area.

A more radical proposition to reduce state involvement in the criminal justice system is the privatisation of its infrastructure. One such plan, which has been proposed by a South African company, is the purchase of police stations and court buildings.³⁷ Selling existing infrastructure would generate revenue for the state. This could be used to purchase resources for the criminal justice system, such as new vehicles and information technology equipment.

The private company purchasing the infrastructure would rent it to the state for the latter’s use. Moreover, police stations — especially those in black areas — could be given a multipurpose function. For example, a bank’s automatic teller machine (ATM), pension payout points, and water and electricity pay points could be attached to a police station. This is beneficial to both the provider of the services and the consumer. An ATM connected to a police station is less likely to be stolen or vandalised, while the user of the service will be better protected at a police station, as the SAPS renders a 24-hour service.

The providers of the services, such as banks, Eskom and the Post Office would pay a fee or rent to be able to operate in or on the property of a police station. The income generated from these ancillary non-policing services could be used to subsidise the police station. This private sector subsidisation would allow the private operator to rent the police station to the state at a low cost.

The South African prosecution service is under considerable strain to deal with the crime situation. While the total number of reported crimes have increased over the last few years, the number of prosecutions and convictions have steadily declined over the four-year period between 1991/92 and 1995/96 (the latest period for which figures are available)³⁸ (figure 3). Various functions of the prosecution service could be undertaken by the private sector.

Technical cases: Prosecutors have little or no training in subjects such as forensic accounting or computer science. As a result, computer-related fraud and intricate commercial crimes are often not prosecuted, or prosecuted unsuccessfully. Such specialised prosecutions could be outsourced to the private sector.³⁹ While outsourcing these prosecutions might be an additional expense to the state in the short-term, the long-term benefits of an increase in the number of successful convictions would be considerable.

Seasonal cases: Over the Christmas/New Year period, there is usually an upsurge of drunken driving, assault, and domestic violence cases. These are normally not complicated cases to prosecute. Because of their sheer number, however, a congestion of cases builds up at the beginning of each year. The solution is not to employ more prosecutors on a full-time basis, as there would be a surplus of prosecutors for the remainder of the year. Rather, the prosecution of such cases could be outsourced to articled clerks and junior attorneys in the private sector.⁴⁰

‘Special’ prosecutions: Larger magistrates’ courts assign one or more prosecutors to deal with maintenance cases, inquest proceedings and traffic contraventions. Prosecutors dealing with such matters are in essence performing non-legal functions that could be outsourced to qualified personnel in the private sector.

Private prosecutions: Legislation makes provision for private prosecutions.⁴¹ These may only occur if a director of public prosecutions certifies that he or she declines to prosecute a case on behalf of the state.⁴² Moreover, private prosecutions are possible only in a limited number of circumstances, specified by statute. In essence, only a private person who proves some "... substantial and peculiar interest in the issue of the trial arising out of some injury which he individually suffered ..." can institute a private prosecution.⁴³ Companies and legal persons cannot do so.

Many large companies would be prepared to use private prosecutors to prosecute people who defraud them. The law, however, would need to be amended to permit companies to do so. There would be a number of benefits from such a change in the law. By instituting private prosecutions, crime victims improve their chances of obtaining a speedy conviction against an accused person. The accused person benefits as his or her trial is finalised more rapidly than would otherwise be the case. Finally, private prosecutions would alleviate some of the pressures on the state-run prosecution system.

Beginning in the mid-1980s, governments in the US, Britain, Australia and in some Western European countries began contracting private firms to operate and even own a variety of prisons.⁴⁴ By the 1990s, a vibrant private imprisonment industry had emerged in these countries.

Over the last ten years, the number of privately operated and owned prisons in the US have increased substantially. In 1987, private secure adult correction facilities accommodated slightly more than 3 000 inmates. By 1997, this had increased to more than 111 000.⁴⁵ According to projections, it will increase to 223 000 by 2000.⁴⁶

In South Africa, the Department of Correctional Services has been investigating private sector participation in the construction and management of prisons since 1994. The department’s commitment to the utilisation of the private sector is a result of both a shift in its thinking and necessity.⁴⁷ The prison system is under severe strain because of a lack of resources, and the rapid increase in the number of prisoners.

South Africa’s prisons have a capacity to house 99 400 prisoners, yet the country’s 231 prisons hold more than 154 000 inmates.⁴⁸

Legislation promulgated in 1997 empowers the Minister of Correctional Services to appoint private contractors to design, construct, finance, manage and operate prisons.⁴⁹ The legislation is broad in terms of what functions and services the Department of Correctional Services may contract out to the private sector. It does contain a number of safeguards, however, to ensure that the state can regulate the disciplining of prisoners and the granting of parole.

The Department of Correctional Services has put the construction of an initial four correctional facilities out for tender.⁵⁰ If all goes well, construction should be completed by the end of 2000.⁵¹

The situation is so critical, however, that the Department of Correctional Services should explore ways of outsourcing specific aspects of the prison system in the interim. The provision of food, clothing, health care, perimeter security, laundry services and the transporting of prisoners could be contracted out to the private sector. Moreover, the provision of various skills training and development programmes, such as building and woodwork, could also be outsourced to private sector educationists and vocational trainers.

The increase in the prison population over the last few years is primarily the result of an increase in the number of awaiting trial prisoners. Some 35 per cent of all prisoners fall into this category.⁵² Between August 1995 and June 1999, the number of sentenced prisoners increased from 85 127 to 100 106 — by eighteen per cent. Over the same period, the number of awaiting trial prisoners increased from 22 051 to 54 107 — by 145 per cent.⁵³

Approximately 22 400 prisoners (fifteen per cent of the total prison population) have been granted bail (figure 4). A prisoner costs the state R80.82 per day.⁵⁴ The Department of Correctional Services thus spends R1,8 million per day (or R657 million per year) on awaiting trial prisoners who have been granted bail, but are unable to pay.

In the US, many jurisdictions have privately employed bail bondsmen or agents who assist accused persons who were granted bail to obtain the money they require to be released from custody. Bail agents make their profits by lending money to accused persons at a fee.

Bail agents have a pecuniary interest in preventing their clients from absconding once they are released on bail. They mail reminders of future court dates to accused persons, telephone them the day before court, or require accused persons to telephone their office periodically.⁵⁵ The National Center for Policy Analysis points out: "The private bail agent can only stay in business if at least 95% of his clients show up in court. Agents have gone broke for failure to run their business as a business. That is why surviving private bail agents are so efficient at ensuring the appearance of their clients — at no cost to the taxpayer."⁵⁶

Bail enforcement agents work with bail agents to trace and apprehend accused persons who have reneged on their bail conditions. In the US, the success of such agents to ensure that an accused person released on bail attends court is ten times greater than when such an accused is released on public bail.⁵⁷

No new legislation is required for the legal operation of private bail enforcement agents in South Africa. A minor amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act would be sufficient to furnish enforcement agents with peace officer status. This would enable them to arrest persons who have broken their bail conditions.⁵⁸ Suitably trained and qualified persons working within the regulated ambit of the private security industry, could be imbued with such powers to enable them to arrest bail absconders.

Education, health services, railways, airports and telephone services have been privatised or partly privatised in a number of countries. It has taken public policy makers a long time to accept that these traditional ‘public services’ can be delivered more effectively and fairly (on the principle that only the user, and not every taxpayer pays) by the market than by the state. Policy makers are also slowly beginning to recognise that the state cannot maintain a monopoly over all the functions of its criminal justice system.

It is likely that the demand for security will increase in the next century. Moreover, the demand will be for increasingly diverse security products and services. The state-run criminal justice system of the future will probably be unable to meet these demands effectively. It will neither have the financial resources nor the expertise to satisfy the public’s growing demands for greater safety. It is probable, therefore, that it will increasingly be the private security industry that will undertake crime prevention, policing, justice and prison-related activities currently performed by the state, in the years to come.

This article is an abridged version of a paper delivered at the 1999 Criminological Society of South Africa International Conference, Cintsa East, 27 May 1999. Most of the research conducted for this article was done while the author was employed by the South African Institute of Race Relations. Moreover, some of the material contained in this article is from a monograph written by the author: Unshackling the crime fighters: Increasing private sector involvement in South Africa’s criminal justice system, Spotlight Series, South African Institute of Race Relations, Johannesburg, 1999.

T M Becker, The place of private police in society: An area of research for the social sciences, Social Problems, 21, 1974, p. 444.



M O Reynolds, Private sector law enforcement, in Using the Private Sector to Deter Crime, Policy Report, 181, National Center for Policy Analysis, March 1994, <www.ncpa.org/studies/s181/ s181e.html>.



University of Kent, Origins of policing, <snipe.ukc.ac.uk/law/spu/polhist.htm>.



Up to and including the 1992/93 budget year, the ‘independent’ homelands had their own budgets for expenditure related to their criminal justice systems. In 1992/93, this amounted to R0,75 billion. The non-independent homelands budgeted for justice and police-related expenses only. In 1992/93, this amounted to R0,55 billion. Homeland expenditure is not included in these calculations.



The consumer price index increase for 1999 is estimated at 6,5 per cent.



CIAC, The incidence of serious crime in South Africa between January and December 1998, Semester Report, 1/99, Crime Information Analysis Centre, South African Police Service, Pretoria, April 1999.



R Alence & G Primstone, Crime and the 1999 elections: Perceptions of voters, Nedcor • ISS Crime Index, 3(1), 1999, pp. 1-4.



Financial Mail, 17 April 1987, p. 59.



Security Focus, April 1997, p. 11.



R Dickerson, chairperson of the Business Against Crime Task Group on the private security industry, briefing at the Institute for Security Studies, Midrand, 30 March 1999.



See also Security Focus, April 1997, p. 10.



Figures provided by the Security Officers’ Board, Pretoria, 31 August 1999.



A Hadfield, Interview, President of the Security Association of South Africa, Cape Town, 29 July 1997. This is a disputed figure, however. At a briefing to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee for Safety and Security in May 1997, the then chairman of the South African Security Federation (SAFED), Mr Ian Pullar, stated that there are 60 000 in-house security officers.



In March 1999, the total staff complement of the SAPS was 128 387, of which 108 020 were uniformed personnel.



The Economist, 19 April 1997, p. 21.



Hadfield, op. cit.



The Citizen, 8 August 1997; Hansard (Q:NA), 18, 21 November 1997, col. 3823.



S Spitzer & A T Scull, Privatization and capitalist development: The case of the private police, Social Problems, 25, 1977, p. 26.



Has the government kept its promises?, The Star, 21 April 1999.



D H Bayley & C D Shearing, The future of policing, Law & Society Review, 30(3), 1996, p. 601.



The Star, 12 June 1996.



Cape Times, 7 April 1998; Obswatch pamphlet, 9 July 1997.



Cape Times, 7 April 1998.



T van Vuuren, Policing in a ‘democracy’: Fact or fiction, Polsa Bulletin, 2, 1998, p. 7; Report on the activities of the Centurion Community Protection Company during September 1997.



The South African Security Federation (SASFED) is the largest body representing the security industry in South Africa. It represents twenty national security, or security-related organisations, covering more than 200 000 employees in the security field.



A de V Minnaar, Partnership policing between the South African Police Service and the South African private security industry, Research Centre: National Management Services, SAPS, Pretoria, June 1997, p. 12.



Ibid., p. 21.



Investment Surveys, a Johannesburg-based company, has a forensic science laboratory service that includes fingerprint analysis, ballistic investigations, chemical analysis, arson investigations, handwriting analysis and crime scene reconstruction. J du Plooy, Interview, Director of Investment Surveys, Halfway House, 8 December 1997.



L Johnston, The rebirth of private policing, Routledge, London, 1992, p. 105.



F Seedat & J Walker, Interview, Deloitte & Touche, Cape Town, 30 September 1997. For a US perspective, see also S G Ghezzi, A private network of social control: Insurance investigation units, Social Problems, 30(5), 1983, pp. 521-531.



For example, Investment Surveys, and O Fourie and Associates that conduct criminal investigations of this nature.



Outcry over number of police for athletes, The Citizen, 7 September 1998.



Hansard (Q:NA), 18, 21 November 1997, cols. 3825-3826.



One in three police has Std 8 or less, The Citizen, 25 June 1998; Hansard (Q:NCOP), 5, 22 June 1998, cols. 415-416.



B L Benson, The enterprise of law: Justice without the state, Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy, San Francisco, 1990, p. 181.



Ibid.



The Safety, Security and Justice Holding Company Ltd. A Cape property company, Property Asset Managers, would manage the properties to be privatised. W van der Vent, Telephonic interview, portfolio manager, Property Asset Managers, 19 March 1998. (See also Business Day, 11 February 1998; Business Report, 13 August 1998.)



Central Statistical Service report no. 00-11-01 (1995/96) Pretoria.



Section 38(1) of the National Prosecuting Authority Act, No 32 of 1998, grants the authority to the national director of public prosecutions to engage, on behalf of the state, persons having "... suitable qualifications and experience to perform services in specific cases."



A similar proposal by the Natal Law Society suggested that attorneys could be appointed as acting magistrates in civil cases to help reduce the backlog in magistrates’ courts. The justice department welcomed the proposal, but was concerned about its implementation. See Appeal for attorneys’ help on civil cases, Business Day, 5 November 1998.



Republic of South Africa, Criminal Procedure Act, No 51 of 1977, as amended, Government Printer, Pretoria, 1977, Sections 7-17.



Ibid., Section 7.



Ibid., Section 7(1)(a).



For detail on the relatively modest involvement of the private sector in the construction and management of prisons in Western Europe, see K Beyens & S Snacken, Prison privatization: An international perspective, in R Matthews & P Francis (eds.), Prisons 2000, 1996, pp. 246-249.



C W Thomas et al., Private adult correctional facility census, 10th edition, Private corrections project, Center for Studies in Criminology and Law, University of Florida, <www.clas.ufl.edu/crim/pcp/images/ tenyeargrowth.gif>.



Ibid.



Speaking at a press conference in Cape Town on 22 April 1997, the then Minister of Correctional Services, Dr Mzimela conceded that "... the government has not got enough money for the prisons we need."



S Maseko, Facsimile message to the author, Department of Correctional Services media liaison services, 26 July 1999.



Republic of South Africa, Correctional Services Act, No 8 of 1959, as amended by Act 102 of 1997, Government Printer, Pretoria, 1997, Section 20A(1).



An awaiting trial facility in Boksburg (Gauteng) for 1 500 inmates, a maximum security prison in Grootvlei (Free State) for 1 500 inmates, a further maximum security prison in Louis Trichardt (Northern Province) for 1 500 inmates, and a prison for juveniles in Barberton (Mpumalanga) for 800 inmates.



B Slabbert, Telephonic interview, ministerial liaison officer, Department of Correctional Services, 25 November 1998.



Maseko, op. cit.



Ibid.



Ibid.



M A Toborg, Bail bondsmen and criminal courts, The Justice System Journal, 8(2), 1983, p. 142.



Reynolds, op cit.



"Private bail agents have a 0,8% fugitive rate versus 8,0% percent for public bail". See Alexander Grant study, <www.public-policy.../ studies/s181/s181g.html>.



Granting peace officers the power to arrest a person who has reneged on his or her bail condition can be done in two ways. Firstly, the offence of failing to comply with a bail condition, (Section 67A of the Criminal Procedure Act, No 51 of 1977, as amended by Act No 75 of 1995), could be made a Schedule 1 offence. Secondly, the offence of failing to comply with a bail condition, could be added to Section 40 of Act No 51 of 1977, as amended. This would authorise peace officers to arrest, without a warrant, a person who has failed to comply with his or her bail conditions.